Moving is not for sissies. I have decided it is not for old folk either! Right now I look like I have been fighting. I have a cut on my arm, a bruise on the other arm, and both shins are dinged up. I have dropped boxes, run into furniture, and in general made a mess of myself.

The good news is that all this pain is paying off. We are starting to see rooms come together. The breakfast room is taking shape. The light was terrible this morning but I was excited to show what is done so far. Better photos to come.

The picture above the pie safe is a fruit drawing I did in junior high. The artwork is terrible, but It has all the right colors and will be fun to put in the room.

The pie safe that my great, great grandfather made for his wife as a wedding present is now filled with my grandmother’s china thanks to my sister in law.

The green-legged table is now in place. I have to do some work to get the electrical cords put away and add my treasures to the top.

My yellow chairs are in place along with the antique oak table that we bought 25 years ago. I have a plan for the wall above the green-legged table, but everything else is a clean slate. I need my old neighbor Shahana to come over and help me with the top of the pie safe!

The best time to shop for anything at a resale shop or an auction is when no one else is willing to be out shopping. If you want the best deals go when it is raining, early in the morning or, like we just did, when it is blazing hot. It was 102 on the truck thermometer and we were pooped after a day of shopping when I spied this table sitting outside a charity resale shop. It had just been delivered and heat waves were radiating off the black asphalt where it was sitting. The table was marked $60.00.

I walked around inside the store for a little while then asked the lady at the register what she would take for the table. To my surprise she said it was too hot and heavy to bring in so if we wanted it we could have it for $20.00. Sold.

I really only wanted the legs of the table, but both Hubby and I were surprised at the quality of the table as it was loaded. I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. I need want a buffet table at the end of our breakfast room. I have been secretly jealous of my friend Robin’s green end table with a stained top so the color was obvious…well to me it was. We worked on getting the base and table top cut from the original table, but it was just so new and commercial looking. Yes, I am one of those people who like a room to look collected, not bought as a set. I feel the same about furniture. I want unique, original and character. Hubby and I sat in the Garagemahal looking at the piece when it came to my husband. Use the wood from my dad. the plank has been sitting in the hoard over a year. It is heart pine and full of character. I love that my dad saved it from a trash pile at the place where he worked for 30 years. According to my dad the wood was used as a drafting table in the shop of Gulf States Utilities. He said it was built in the 40’s and was already old when he started there in 1960. A quick measurement let us know that it would work. Yay! It needed a quick cut down to the sides to make it fit, a rub down with mineral spirits to clean it, and a coat of poly. Nothing else.It will live in our house proudly. I love wood with history.

The color is a little richer than Behr’s Happy Camper, because I needed it to match my fabric on the chairs in the breakfast area. I chose Behr’s Jungle Trail.

One coat of Bona Floor Poly on this was enough to bring out the shine but not make it too glossy.

I love those nail holes.

It is hard to photograph a green piece of furniture at Star Hill. I had to move it to the gravel road to allow it to show up.

Lots of work took place on this old wood. I love that my dad saved it from the trash pile and held on to it for more than 10 years before I got it. It looks amazing.

It was so well made that the two pieces of wood match perfectly. We thought it was one piece of wood until we got it cleaned up.

It also has been used by others to make outdoor storage and we still have a little hanging out that Baby Boy believes will become a sauna for him… we will see.

We had every intention of getting the porch done at the same time but the summer got away from us, then weddings, then job changes. You get the picture. This summer we are actually living at Star Hill so Hubby is getting it done. The rails and posts came down easily. He was done in a day with the rails and did the posts one by one so he could support the roof as he went along.

For some reason the railing has gone a little slower getting put back up. There is a lot of measuring, cutting and leveling involved. If you are needing to replace your railing or have installed a deck, I definitely recommend buying the railings for decks that are pre-assembled. They are $29.00 per 6 foot section. We figured it out and it costs an extra $9.00 per section to purchase them pre-assembled. Well worth the money.

They make brackets now that make assembly a snap. You just have to know which bracket you need!

I am so excited to get this project finished! Once the rails are up and the fascia board under the roof are replaced it is all getting a coat of paint. We are going to paint the porch and concrete foundation walls too. Enjoy the pictures.

What do you get when you add one artistic, stubborn chick to one math minded, if I build it I expect it to last forever dude? You get most of our projects. We don’t do easy at our house. A while back ( like February!) I saw on Pinterest a sewing cabinet turned into a beverage station. Here is the link to the posting I saw: Beverage Station.

It looked simple enough. Put something into the hole that the sewing machine once lived in and voila! Shortly after finding this project online I found a sewing cabinet at a thrift store. $12.12 for the cabinet. It was a basic sewing cabinet that had no machine inside. Probably a 1960’s version. I was visiting my daughter in North Carolina so what could be better than bring something to work on home? For some reason I do not seem to have a photo of it when I bought it. I hope you can forgive me. I think that my brain is completely gone with all the moving. Here is a photo of the inside before Hubby got busy cutting.

I finally got the Garagemahal cleared enough that I could get moving on the beverage station. As I shared my idea with Hubby, I could see the wheels moving in his head. That is where the not easy part started. He decided that a sink would be the best thing to put in the station. A sink would drain when the ice melted without having to tip it over. I am embarrassed to tell you this, but we just so happened to have a stainless steel double sink in the hoard. You know those sinks that everyone is tearing out of their kitchen right now to put in under-mount sinks? That is what we had…well we actually had two.

Hubby got out his grinder. A scary machine that I do not touch. It sends sparks flying and takes some arm strength.

I now have two separate sinks instead of one double sink!

After he finished cutting the sink, he cut out a rough opening for the sink in the cabinet. The hole was not quite large enough.

As you see from this picture I also filled in the holes where the cabinet hardware was. I found one I liked a lot more at our local Restore for fifty cents. It will match the house better. Of course I am saving what I came on it for another project.

I liked the idea he had about dropping in a sink but the sink on top of the wood was going to keep the cabinet from closing flat. This is where the project becomes more complicated. Enter another tool I am not comfortable using. A router. Hubby routed out a groove on the top of the cabinet so that the sink would be recessed. A much better look.

I know that it is not very noticeable here but the sink fits so much better now!

Painting began. First a coat of primer then Behr Sailboat Blue. My back porch is going to be colorful! By the way, we have now painted a chair, a table top, and the beverage station for just over 1/2 a quart of paint.

I used floor poly that is nasty stuff on the entire cabinet. It is going to be on a covered porch but exposed to the elements so I wanted it to last. I even primed the inside of the cabinet and applied poly to that part too. I also had a bottle opener in my hardware collection. It is attached to the end of the cabinet. Here it is all finished.

Please go back and look at my inspiration post if you think this will be too complicated. I do love my beverage station and will be getting a lot of use out of it, especially since it will be as easy as emptying a bucket under it to get rid of the melted ice, but there are easier ways to make this cabinet. We just don’t do easy at our house. Enjoy the finished product.

Showing off my new dispenser.

Bottle opener on the side

I scrubbed the life out of this sink!

When we are ready to drain the sink, a bucket collects the water.

My cabinet hardware.

we can use it like a table with the top closed

we had no ice at the house…poor planning on my part

I wanted you to see how steep the hill is. it was tricky getting this set up, but it will work great on our back porch!

This is not the first time I have moved. It may have been 14 years since my last move but we have lived in 8 homes since we married. One thing I learned about moving from all of those moves is that you need a basics box. This is a box that goes in to the truck or in this case the container, last. It is the first box out so that you have at least the basics as you move in.

Our box contains:

1 complete set of sheets, cheap pillows and a blanket ( I figure we will find our mattress in the container before the day is over!)

Toilet paper (Over the years we did move into a couple of places that even took the tp with them)

Tylenol

Trash bags

Note pad and pen

At the very least that first day- even if all the boxes are not found immediately or placed in the right room we can eat, sleep, bathe, and go potty. We also have the basics for opening boxes, gathering up trash, re labeling boxes, and dealing with the headache that is sure to come. I have that box delivered to the kitchen and it is opened before anything else comes in. When the have you seen… questions start I can usually supply at least something that will work for the problem. We are probably 80% moved in right now. Baby Boy, Sweet Amanda and their friends put in two hard days of work. My sister in law joined the party yesterday. We are sore, tired and feel incredibly blessed. As I type this Hubby is on his way to the house from Star Hill with a dog, a cat, (not kenneled because he could not find them!)and some of my new treasures. Photos as soon as I am satisfied with a room.

Across the dirt road from my buddy, The Social Planner, this is what we see. TSP picked the best spot on the planet to put her house because her neighbor makes sure she has a gorgeous view. He works hard on his yard and it has all the trappings of a country gentleman’s estate. Exactly what you would expect from Mr. Scott. Except, Mr. Scott was a writer and photographer for Life Magazine before he retired to Coldspring, Texas. In New York City.

There are four very spoiled horses on his land. Just for looking at. He doesn’t ride them.

As spoiled as the horses are, he has a bunch of chickens who have it made. They live in a chicken coop that is the size of a small house.

When Mr. Scott goes out his back door and yells “Ladies”, the hens come running out of their house and into the fenced yard. They love clover and know he is going to pick some and throw it into the yard.

This is a group of spoiled chickens.

They love the clover!

All the fencing is not to keep the chickens in. Those birds know that they have it good and wouldn’t leave. It is to keep snakes, raccoons, wild hogs and coyotes out. Yep. This is the real deal country.

Did you know that the color of the bird determines the color of the egg? Mr. Scott schooled us on chickens.

He has had birds live more than 10 years. One hen is 13.

He also grows things. Baby boy was getting a lesson from him here.

Do you know what this is?

Here is a better shot.

It is asparagus! It takes two years for asparagus to be established and ready for harvest. I love asparagus and I think I am going to try some at Star Hill next year.

Our very last night in Baytown, our former home, Hubby showed me how much he loves me… he spotted some side tables sitting by the road and pulled over then turned around to pick them up without even asking. Sigh. I do love that guy. We were moving the next day and that was something else to load into the storage building but they will always have a special meaning to me.

Here are the beauties getting unloaded by Hubby and Sweet Amanda.

The tables turned out to be solid wood and in great shape structurally. The only problem I had with them was a water ring that was revealed when the tops were sanded down to bare wood.

This leads me to the not everything you read on Pinterest is true part. A visit to Pinterest led me to believe that allowing bleach to soak into the stain would help. Not so. Here is the stain before bleach and after. More sanding and washing. Did not help.

The ring wins. The tables are going in the sage green bedroom where shades of white and coral. I love colors across the color wheel and it just so happens that sage and coral compliment each other! It took a few coats of stain, a few costs of paint and two costs of poly to get this done.

Look at this creepy spider that was hiding in the crevice of one of the legs!

Won’t they look good with the dresser set? They will be so cute in the room.

I will have to show you my project with the other part of the roadside fond later. Don’t you love the hooves on the end table?